Everton ease past West Brom to close on top four

Everton closed to within five points of the top-four with a convincing defeat of a lacklustre West Bromwich Albion at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Two goals shortly before halftime put the hosts in charge – the first in the 39th minute from Kevin Mirallas who was on hand to poach a rebound after Ross Barkley’s shot was saved.

Frenchman Morgan Schneiderlin lashed in his first goal for Everton seconds before the interval.

West Brom hardly threatened the Everton goal and the hosts scored again near the end when Romelu Lukaku headed in from Barkley’s cross for his 19th league goal of the season.

Meanwhile, Oumar Niasse proved Hull City’s hero as he netted a superb double in the 2-1 victory over fellow strugglers Swansea City that gave a serious shot in the arm to the Tigers in their fight against relegation.

Marco Silva’s Tigers had looked fairly toothless until Senegal international Niasse was introduced in the 63rd minute and it proved an inspired substitution from the Portuguese manager.

Within six minutes, Niasse had been played in by Abel Hernandez before slotting the ball beneath Lucasz Fabianski and he then sent the KCOM Stadium into further raptures with another clinical finish 12 minutes from time.

Joshua King scored a hat-trick and missed a penalty as Bournemouth edged a five-goal thriller against West Ham United to ease six points away from relegation danger.

Bournemouth missed two penalties in the first half. King screwed wide in the ninth minute and West Ham went ahead seconds later when Michail Antonio turned smartly and shot past Bournemouth keeper Artur Boruc.

The hosts deservedly levelled through King in the 31st minute before Bournemouth were awarded another penalty when Marc Pugh went down in the area, only for Benik Afobe to have his kick saved by Darren Randolph.

King put Bournemouth ahead from Afobe’s knockdown early in the second half but Ayew struck eight minutes from time.

In a thrilling finale King lashed Bournemouth’s winner in the 90th minute after Randolph had saved from Jack Wilshere.

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